Springfield NEA Recommends School Board Candidates

Springfield NEA’s school board committee, composed of volunteer SNEA members, recently completed an extensive interview process for school board candidates and has issued the following three recommendations for the April 7 election (in alphabetical order):


Jill Patterson
Francine Pratt
Bruce Renner



Jill Patterson

Springfield educators are quite familiar with Jill Patterson as the face and voice on mandated reported training videos over the years. Her considerable experience working on behalf of abused and neglected children in our community was a strong factor in her decision to run for the school board and in SNEA’s recommendation. Patterson served as a prosecuting attorney with Greene County for 15 years. She has served on numerous boards relating to education and child advocacy. Governor Nixon appointed Patterson to the Child Abuse and Neglect Review Board in 2013. She has worked as a debate coach and has volunteered for numerous school-related activities, including PTA and Early Childhood tutoring. Ms. Patterson is the only candidate with children who currently attend Springfield Public Schools. SNEA believes she will make an outstanding school board member.


Francine Pratt

Francine Pratt is currently the Executive Director for Multicultural Programs at Missouri State University and was formerly Program Coordinator for Drury University’s Scholars Program as well as Executive Director for Isabel’s House, the Crisis Nursery of the Ozarks. Pratt also has served on the advisory committee for OTC Middle School program as part of a long list of civic activities and leadership. Ms. Pratt worked as a mentor in all five Springfield high schools to develop college preparedness for diverse students and is quite familiar with Springfield schools, having worked with many teachers, counselors, school nurses and principals. Pratt’s extensive civic activism leaves her uniquely qualified to serve on the school board.


Bruce Renner

Nobody knows the Springfield school district better than Bruce Renner, who has served for 21 years on the board of education. Renner has seen five superintendents come and go over the span of his volunteer work on the school board, and he has never lost his passion for making Springfield Schools a better place to teach and learn. SNEA knows firsthand through years of experience working with Renner that there is no stronger advocate for public education, teachers and students. He is considered the board’s in-house archivist, and he’s particularly adverse to watching the district repeat mistakes it has made in the past – nor is he adverse to speaking up about it. Renner graduated from Parkview High School and worked as a teacher and counselor at Central and Parkview before becoming Director of Admissions and Dean of Student Services at OTC. He currently teaches part-time at OTC. Some board members may become complacent with longevity, but such is not the case with Renner. SNEA heartily recommends another term for this dedicated educator.


Other Candidates


Patricia Ann Ingold

Patricia Ingold is making her first run for public office after being asked to run by friends in the community. She has taught in private and public schools in Virginia, California and Missouri and offers strong support for teachers. She currently works as a property manager. Ingold expressed concerns about the public schools asking parents and families to abandon their values. She also expressed concerns about top down social engineering by the government through public schools.


Swayne Loftis

Swayne Loftis chose not to participate in the SNEA interview process, but he did submit a partial questionnaire. Loftis was in the news last year, when he attempted to be on the school board ballot but did not submit enough valid signatures. At that time, he raised serious questions about the integrity of the process and those who counted the signatures. This year, Loftis is on the ballot. He describes himself as a conservative contractor working on contract with the US Forest Service and Missouri Department of Conservation. Loftis says that, as a board member, he would never tolerate any curriculum, teacher, or administrator to pressure or bully a child to sin against Almighty God in any way.

How Can You Help a Fellow Member?

 

Dear SNEA members,

I am writing to you to ask for your help for a fellow MNEA member and a friend of mine.

My friend, Lori Zanitsch from Special School District, is in need of raising S25, 000 for a service animal- a DAD?

 

What is a DAD you ask?

A Diabetic Alert Dog (DAD) is trained to alert their handlers when the sugar is 80 and below or 180 and above. The dogs start training when they are 7-8 weeks old. The DAD will alert me or do "go tells". This is when the diabetic does not check their sugar or ignores the DAD; the Diabetic Alert Dog will go and find someone else to tell that the diabetic is not testing. The DADs will go and retrieve the meter bag, juice box, or other needed item. The DADs will go with the diabetic to any public place (if the public is allow by federal law so are Service Dogs). This includes work and school. If for some reason the diabetic has to be admitted into the hospital the DADs are able to stay by their side and alerting to sugar lows and highs.

Why does Lori need a DAD? Doesn’t she have a service animal?

Yes, Lori has a cat-Cosmo. He has been her service animal for many years. In October she felt a lump on Cosmo.  After surgery was performed and a biopsy completed it was determined that he had Feline Vaccine Associated Sarcoma.  The vaccines he was given during the summer had created the cancer.  1% of all cats vaccinated get this type of cancer.  This type of cancer does not respond well to typical cancer treatments so now he is going to have his leg amputated.  This is not a decision that Lori wanted to make but Cosmo has saved her life so many times it is now time to save his. Therefore she must replace him as her service animal.

 

How can I help?

Contact Melissa Albright at 417-343-2120, email melissamalbright@hotmail.com or stop by the SNEA office purchase to raffle tickets for a 32 inch color TV. Tickets are:  1 ticket for $5 or 5 tickets for $20.

The drawing is Jan. 31.

Please act now. I would love for an SNEA member to win! But better yet, you will be helping a fellow member.

 

If you would prefer to donate and receive a tax deduction go to the following site and donate:

http://sdwr.donordrive.com/campaign/cosmic

The best part about being an MNEA member is that we are family and family helps family. I hope I can count on you to help fellow member and friend Lori Zanitsch.

Springfield NEA is Proud of the Accomplishments of Our Highly Qualified, Educator-Members

Please click on the links below to read about 2 of our colleagues who have achieved National Board Certification and continue to grow as recognized leaders in their disciplines. Congratulations to Dr. Melissa Albright, who also serves locally on our Executive Board and to Lisa Lilley.



http://www.springfieldpublicschoolsmo.org/pages/SPSMO/News/SPS_educator_elected_to_nation

http://www.springfieldpublicschoolsmo.org/pages/SPSMO/News/MYP_coordinator_elected_to_boa

 A Word of Encouragement

To coincide with the most recent, education-profession-bashing, article in Time Magazine, I think it is important to send a clear message to all of you who have committed your lives and careers to positively impact the lives of your students on a daily basis.

It is too often a thankless task. I know that a majority of our members are elementary teachers and they are setting aside each afternoon this week and one really long evening, to meet with the parents of each of their students. Those conversations will be unique; pointing out the learning styles, strengths and challenges of every student. Each conference will be a living example of the 'Learning is Personal' vision our district strives to achieve.

Do you get the impression I could go on and on?

Thanks to the debate coaches, whose students engage in relevant, critical thinking at every turn.

Kudos to the vocal, instrumental and visual arts teachers who consistently provide opportunities for their students to engage in 'the arts' as a daily way of looking at and understanding the world around them.

A shout out goes to science teachers who use current events and ongoing projects like the Nautilus, deep-sea exploration to inspire their students to ask questions and to test theories.

Much gratitude goes to athletic coaches, of all sports, who foster a healthy understanding in their athletes about what it really means to participate as a team member and to work together toward a common goal.

Each of us knows that many of our students wouldn't come to school at all if these opportunities weren't available to them. It is the dedication and expertise of our educators that keeps many students involved in school each day.

Please know that it would have been easy to keep on writing; listing the amazing ways that counselors, nurses, librarians and all of you meet the needs of the students in our community.

Thank you!

Kittilu Maxson

Springfield NEA President

 Springfield School Board Update

Study Session, 10.7.2014

 

 

Highlights:

 

* Parker McKenna made a recommendation for the board to renew the District's contract with Mercy as the Preferred Provider. The new 5-year contract will save the District approximately $4 million dollars, according to a re-pricing analysis of last year's claims. The board will vote on the recommendation at it's next regular meeting, Oct. 21, 2014.

 

* The board is considering a 3rd party contract to cover Crossing Guard responsibilities. There was much discussion about partnering with both the city and county, but the total cost to the district could be as much as $67,000 if those groups do not contribute toward the costs of keeping our children safe.

 

* Dr. Jungmann presented a draft of the district's 2015 Legislative Agenda, to be voted on at the next meeting. The document stresses legislative support of local control, revenue increases, the positive correlation between strong public schools and our community's healthy economic development, a commitment to fully funding the formula and an expectation that local legislators will use the Missouri Public Education Vision Project to direct their work for our children.

 

* Board President, Dr. Denise Fredrick presented to the Chamber's Good Morning, Springfield about the importance of defeating Amendment 3. She also volunteered with other local educators at the Protect Our Local Schools phone bank to call voters across the state to ask them to join us in voting against this harmful amendment.

 

* All board members agreed that more focused, one-on-one advocacy needs to take place between each of them and our local legislators. They expressed frustration that many candidates run on an 'education' platform and then can't be found when it's time to vote in support of our local education issues. There may be a reception for local legislators before the Dec. 9th board meeting.

 

One of my favorite moments of the meeting, which lasted until after 8:00 p.m., was when Dr. Jungmann referred to ,"Creativity and our other C's...", as he shared out experiences from his Listening/Learning Tour. Many of us have  thought that Creativity should be the first of the 4 C's and it was inspiring to hear the word used so naturally by the vision-maker of our district!

 

Submitted by Kittilu Maxson

SNEA President

Will You Accept the Challenge?

 

Springfield NEA President, Kittilu Maxson is joining with SPS -School Board President, Dr. Denise Fredrick in issuing a phone bank challenge!

 

WHEN- Monday, September 29, from 3-7 pm

               and Tuesday, September 30, from 3-7 pm

WHERE- Protect Our Local Schools, Southwest Regional Office

                  519 Walnut in downtown Springfield

 

Join us in a friendly competition to make as many phone calls as we can, while we work to defeat Amendment 3. Sign in as a 'friend' of SNEA or 'friend' of the School Board and we'll post the results here!

 

You will be working to support our Local Schools when you give even 30 minutes of your time toward this effort.

 

Hope to see you there!

 



Remarks to the Springfield School Board

Sept. 2, 2014/Study Session

Kittilu Maxson, SNEA president

 

When you ask any educator if they consider their profession to be a business or an art, they would lean heavily toward it being an art, but each educator also willingly understands the need for accountability as they provide an undeniably important service to their community through their work with students each day.

You’re all familiar with the non-profit, “TeachGreat”. I would be remiss if I didn’t take this opportunity to point out that “TeachGreat” is grammatically incorrect. The correct phrase would be; "TeachWell". I don’t teach great, I teach well!  Putting all politics aside, you’ve asked me to bring you the teacher perspective. Thank you for this opportunity.

Let’s start by looking at our very own Springfield Learning Model. It’s processes include the familiar 3 C’s; Critical Thinking, Communication and Collaboration. Should Amendment 3 pass, teachers could see a much different emphasis in these areas. With so much riding on one-size-fits-all, state mandated testing, the results of which become the quantifiable student performance data to be used as the majority of each educator’s professional evaluation, our new 3 C’s might sound something like this;

                    *Careful Test-Taking, instead of Critical Thinking

                    *Communicating Quantifiable Data

                    *Competition, rather than Collaboration

Let’s look at that last one, Competition. Our district currently fosters and supports a culture of team collaboration at all levels. Amendment 3 could cause a subtle, yet negative shift toward professional isolation and competition among colleagues. Both are antithetical to the professional development of educators and are not in the best interests of our students… who come to us each year with a wide variety of strengths and needs. PD would need to focus on teaching to the tests. Teachers believe that what our district is focusing on now, the growth and progress of our student over time, is so much more relevant and accurate than any single, status shot derived from a one-size-fits-all, high stakes testing event.

As a climate of harmful competitiveness grows, the very same educators, who now choose to follow their hearts into careers where they advocate for the students with the most challenges to overcome, like in many of our Title and Focus schools, would be faced with the reality of their very jobs being on the line if their student’s scores didn’t meet a certain state-determined level.magine the scenario that could quickly emerge; students with potentially the most to lose, would no longer have the advantages of ever being guided and taught by our most experienced educators. What teachers would be willing to continue to take that risk?

I wonder if you’ve thought about the extra burden that will be placed on administrators and counselors if this amendment becomes law.As they create class lists and schedules, they will now not only be trying to match student’s needs with teacher’s strengths, but also be deciding the make-up of the group by which their colleagues will be evaluated and compensated. What a strain this will put on the professional and collegial relationships of educators at each site, but also on the student-teacher relationship.

Beyond the shift to Careful Test-Taking and Competition, it seems our mission statement could change from “Learning Is Personal”, to something more like “Learning Is Quantifiable”. Understand, educators want to show the effects of their art and professionalism through an effective evaluation system. Teachers don’t shy away from this process.Our district is currently implementing a new educator evaluation system which relies on highly trained administrators, collaborating with educators to use multiple measures, over time, in order to rate educator effectiveness. This evaluation process, when paired with our negotiated, binding contract and existing board policy, allows the district to have both the input and control it needs to ensure a quality educational environment for each student.

I  never thought I’d be so pleased to have the Springfield Learning Model to rely on as a structure, but as we move forward together in transparency and accountability, we must think critically about how we communicate this important issue and continue to foster collaborative, person-centered relationships which, together,  benefit our students, educators and our whole community. 

Teachers aren’t interested in having a constitutional amendment insert itself into our district’s continually improving processes.

Teachers and students are more than a test score.

Teachers understand there will be high costs of implementation, draining funding away from what they know their classrooms actually need.

Teachers don’t believe their students deserve this extra testing burden.

Teachers value working in a district that has high levels of local control.

This is a teacher’s perspective.

Thank-you.